$74.78

made by James Benning. (2005, 1 minute, silent)No people in it.Must make people hungry.Must be in color.(He gave me a color test roll for his feature “Ten Skies.” (2004), which contains every shot of the film.)

James Benning (born in 1942 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American filmmaker. He is the son of German immigrants and studied film at the University of Wisconsin (1975). He has worked as an independent filmmaker ever since. His films focus on a sense of place and are often built from long, unedited takes. He used to work in Chicago but in recent years has been based on the West Coast. In addition to his film work, he has taught at Northwestern University and joined the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts in 1987.

I buy a filmmaker lunch and in trade they give me a short film made for the cost of the lunch. It started by accident – and necessity. In all, 50 short films have been commissioned (or eaten). Rules and ideas based on whatever we talked about at lunch are written on a napkin contract.
While each film has its own logic, it’s all about a variety of tastes. The overall metaphor is about community. It is very easy to help a filmmaker. Buy one lunch today. –Mike Plante